Sermon: Caleb: Wholeheartedly Following God Exemplified
Lessons From Caleb
#1847B
Ted E. Bowling
Given 22-Nov-25; 32 minutes
description: The apostle Paul reminds us that Scripture was written to teach, strengthen, and give hope. The example of Caleb demonstrates wholehearted faith. Though often overshadowed by Joshua, Caleb stands out as a man with a "different spirit," loyal, courageous, patient, and unwavering in trust. While the other spies saw only danger, Caleb saw God's power and urged Israel to act on His promises. He endured forty years of wandering without complaint, supported Joshua without jealousy, and at eighty-five still trusted God-not himself—to fulfill what had been promised. His life demonstrates that faith is proven in adversity, that age does not limit what God can do, and that genuine obedience flows from a heart that relies on God for strength, timing, and victory. Caleb's example calls for believers to the same wholehearted trust, confident that God is bigger than any giant or mountain before them.
transcript:
This afternoon, I want to start in Romans chapter 15 verses 44 verses 6. In these verses, Paul is reminding us how important it is to go back into the scriptures and review the lives of men recorded to help us today as we strive to live our lives in a godly manner. In verse 4, it says. For what our things were written before were written for our learning that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Jesus Christ. That you may with one mind and with one mouth glorify the glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is telling us here that You can go back into the Old Testament, and there are rich sources of lessons to be learned. And of course for us today, the New Testament as well. These lessons are put in here for us. To learn and to grow that we may have a closer relationship with God. They help us to know. How God thinks. Where his heart is, what his character is. And through the scriptures. It gives us hope. And God expects us to learn these lessons. He expects us to read the scriptures. And to apply them directly in our lives. Why? Well, one reason is that these people were just people like you and I. You know, you read their lives, the things that they did, and they are extraordinary. And you say yourself, how could I ever do that? But if you're in that situation, You would. And Our God wants us to go through these, these, these stories in the scriptures. That we may we may experience them and take them in and grow from them. Because again, in the scriptures, these are men and women just like you and I. You know, I want to go back and look at a, a gentleman in the scriptures. And he's someone a character in the Bible that really inspires me. And has encouraged me and he's an encouragement to all of us in our Christian growth. Over the last few weeks, we've heard a lot of sermons, Bible study about Joshua. And he was a tremendous leader who God chose to lead. The people into the promised land, especially after the death of Moses. He had the weight of leading the country, leading the children of Israel. Into the promised land. And in fact, I was thinking there is a famous plaque that most people have in their homes, and it's a verse from Joshua, which says, as for me in my house. Very will serve the Lord. Oftentimes when I think of Joshua though. We think of cable as well. Caleb is the other guy. There is a little less known about Caleb, and I find. Though that Caleb is one of the most inspiring personalities in the Old Testament. One of those heroes of the Bible. And today I want to talk about the other guy, Caleb, and the great contribution that he made. And thanks again. Uh, James, for, for already going here. Thank you. In the, in the book of numbers. We see that the Israelites had been, had left Egypt and been traveling a little over a year, and they had come to the edge of the promised land. Of course so many times. We see here a beginning in the crack of their faith. Right at the beginning, right at the edge of going into the land, all of a sudden they become very cautious. In Numbers chapter 13, I'll read 2 and 3 this time. It says Since send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I have given to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, every one, a chief among them. So, so Moses sent them from the wilderness of Perran, according to the commandment of the Lord, and all the men who were heads of the people of Israel. Now, the first question is, Why would God need to send anyone out to spy this land? He knew what he knew what was there. And the answer is It was not God. It was the people. Please turn to Deuteronomy chapter 1. I'll just touch on this just for a second. Because there was a reason why they spied out the land first. Now remember the Book of Deuteronomy. It was a speech, a sermon that Moses gave just before they entered into the promised land. And so, Moses is looking backwards. And my heading to my Bible in this section says, Israel's refusal to enter the land. Verse 21. Look, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up and possess it. As the Lord God, your fathers has spoken to you, do not fear or be discouraged. And every one of you came near to me and said, let us send men before us. And let them search out the land for us and bring back word to us of the way that we, which we should go up and the cities into which they shall come. You see, It was not God That was concerned about who was in the land or the territory. It was the people. And so often God gives the people what they asked for, and he did here as well. So let's go back to Numbers Chapter 13. I get them I'll read verse 2 again. Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers, you shall send a man, every one, a chief among them. Now, as the next few verses, it gives a list of all the spies, and there is only two names in there that we would recognize. Those are his Joshua, the son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim. And then there is Uh, he, the, the son of Jaffna. Now, it's interesting that Caleb was the son of Jeffina, who was a Canaanite. A foreigner And now the scriptures do not mention who Cala's mother was. And she, she might have been an Israelite, we do not know. But we do know that they were in bondage along with the Israelites. In fact, the name Caleb in Hebrew means dog. Now, There are, I've seen commentaries and folks have written that that this means loyalty. You know, like a dog is loyal to you. But at that time, that's not what a dog meant. That's not what the word meant at all. At that time, the word dog was associated with evil or low stature. Now Interesting, this man, Caleb. Became a man of great loyalty and faith. In fact, he made in so many words, he changed the definition of this word. Because if you ask To define Caleb now just by reading scriptures, you would say, a man of loyalty. But it is clear I believe that he suffered in Egypt. And, and suffered in captivity, like all the others, and maybe even a little bit worse, again, being called, and we do not know, by the way, if that was his name or nickname, we do not know. But not just having to go through being a slave, but he also went through probably a little bit of ridicule as he grew up. And so, we do not know how hard his life was, it's not told us. Now, In verse 2, again, it says that he was sent from the tribe of Judah. It's interesting that the tribe of Judah was the largest tribe of all of their, of their, of the 12. They had about 74,000 men over 20 years of age. And so, they chose Caleb. Out of 2 74,000 men. I think that tells us there was something special about this man. And there was In fact, the scriptures. It describes Caleb as wholeheartedly. Following the Lord. Let's turn to Numbers 1424. Because, but because my servant, which is, this is the Lord speaking, but my, but, but because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring him out into the land and he will, and, and he I will, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it. So, oh, and by the way. It doesn't just say that one time here. There are 6 different locations that it refers to Caleb as a wholehearted, he followed God wholeheartedly. And not just once, not twice, 23 times, but 6 different times. And what does that mean? It tells you in a nutshell. The character of this man. That He lived his life more than just keeping the laws that God had provided. It was more about more than just duty or obligations or habit. That he was passionate about serving God, and he sought with his whole heart, soul, mind, and strength to follow God. Which is the greatest commandment there is. So we see What an example this man was. Again, God told Moses to send the spies out. Now, they went out for 40 days. They went from one end of the, the territory to the other. And when they returned. Caleb and Joshua had a good report. But the others did not. And they convinced all the people. That that they should not go into the land. Of course, their faith was already questionable. And it did not take much. And the people rose up against them. And I'll pick it up in chapter or verse 30 in chapter 6. Where it says, then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it. He did not say, maybe we can take it. I hope we can take it. There was no question here we can take it. But the men who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against these people, for they are stronger than we. And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out saying, the land through which we have gone through as spies is a land that is devours its inhabitants and all the people who saw it. Are men of great stature. In verse 33, there, there we saw giants, the descendants of Enoch came from the giants. And we were grasshoppers in our own site, and so on and, and so we were in their site. Now Again, Caleb and Joshua. So the the same thing as the other did. They did not disagree at all about what the land was like. They did not disagree who the inhabitants were. They did not disagree that there were giants. Or there were fortified cities. The difference is, though, that Caleb and Joshua So the potential. They saw that the task before them was not theirs. But gods to deliver. You see They had all just came out of Egypt just about a year before. They saw Pharaoh. Overcome they saw the writs he divided. They saw the gods of Egypt destroyed. They saw the impossible being done by God. And then these spies came back. And said, can't do it. And the reason why is because they were only looking from the perspective of what they could accomplish. Not what God could accomplish. Again, He said, Let us go up and take the land and overcome these folks. His passionate plea to the people. It was not a matter of circumstances that can we do it? Is that God can do it. Don't you see the miracles that we just came out of? He was trying to convince these folks. To look forward and not behind and trust God for what he had already done for them. It's called the Promised Land. I was thinking about it, it's promised. It was not just Canaan, it was the promised land. Meaning, it was already theirs. All they had to do is go in and take it and let God lead them. Most definitely, these two men were cut from a different cloth. There are elements of this, these men, these two men. That set them apart In fact, in, again, in verse 24, it says that my servant Caleb has a different spirit. I think that it is safe to say this different spirit that Caleb and Joshua had was God's Holy Spirit. And that is why their perspective was totally different from the other spies. Their attitude toward obedience, toward God and all His commands was totally different. Than all the others Cause they gave that good report. And then when he looked down into Numbers 14, and I'm not going to read it all. But at the beginning of it, again, it says that they refused to enter the land. In verse 4. They began to choose new leaders. And then they went to stone, these men. Moses, Aaron, Joshua. And Caleb And I was thinking, You know, Is all the tribes They're probably men. That Joshua and Caleb grew up with, they knew. They were ready to pick up stones. And kill them. Mhm. Where was their faith? The God's spirit gave them the strength to stand. In the front of that crowd, and we do not know how many there were 100s, thousands. But even in this that situation, They would not give in to their rebellion. Caleb never gave up. In fact, we read one more plea from Joshua and Caleb in Numbers 14 and sorry in verse 6. But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Joshua, who were among those who were, who spied out the land, tore their clothes, they rent their clothes, that means they were distraught over what happened. Moses and Aaron were already praying. That God would intervene. Verse 7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of the old saying, the land we pass through to spy out is exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us. A land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land. For they are our bread. Their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. I find it interesting this one sentence here. They They are a Brit. It means we can eat them up. They do not have a chance. There It's already done. But regardless, There was no faith There was no vision. And as a result, As we are reading Chapter 4 chapter 14 verse 9. That God pass judgment on them. And that all those over the age of 20 would not enter the land. They all died on the way. Because they lacked vision. Only Joshua and Caleb actually entered the promised land. Moses died just before going into the land. And so we see here. This example of Caleb, of his loyalty to God. His faithfulness. In the face of the enemy, even his own people at that moment were his enemy. He stood for what was right. And now, as we go as they traveled through the land. I think we can also see the patience of Caleb. Consider this These were 2 men That had went into the land. They had seen. And experienced the goodness of that land. They had tasted it. They'd handled it. They did not have to imagine. How good it might be. Because they were there. But Even with that, they had to wait 40 years to experience it again. I think that would be torture. You knowing that this was promised to me. I was already there, I've seen it, I'm walking around, and then you had to wait 40 years to experience it. And we have no idea. Of the hardships that they had to endure. To, as they continued through the wilderness with their countrymen again. Seeing the bodies screwed all along the way. But never once is there any evidence that Caleb ever complained. He patiently waited for God and his timing and when it was ready for him. To give him the reward that he had promised. You know, In our lives. We are in this wilderness. We will Go through and experience things that are not our fault, but we will experience it. We will suffer hardships and trials. Even though we are working, striving to obey God and, and, and, and honor him, we will yet still go through these things. We need to have the same zeal. An attitude as as Caleb did. Because servant God. Comes first. It might be because he was a leader. And I was thinking about this that of all those that went into the land. Remember, there was only, no one was over 20 years of age. And so, The people really looked. To Joshua and Caleb for their leadership and their strength. Now I think I understand why, God. Gave them a different spirit. Because they would need it as they wandered through that land. You know, one of the thought that I had. is that there is no evidence. Of, of him ever being jealous. Of Joshua being the leader. God chose Joshua in that leadership position, and there is never no evidence but of him rebelling. But only living his life in a very supportive role. There was no rivalry, there was no envy between them. I think if anything, the Bible portrays them. With a great relationship, a mutual friendship. Again, Caleb is described as a man who wholly followed the Lord. And I think that this represents that very well. And then it came time, when they were there to point the land. Caleb approached Joshua with humility, reminded him of God's specific promise to him. Not out of arrogance or a sense of entitlement. He was reminding Joshua what he had been promised. Let's turn to Joshua 14. I find you know resting that he jumped from. Numbers 14. To Joshua 14. So maybe the way to remember were the accounts of KR in the scriptures. Joshua 14 And verse 6. Then the children of Judah came to Joshua and Gilgal, and Caleb, the son of Jeshua, the Canaanite, said to him, You know the word which the Lord said to Moses, the man of God concerning you and me in Kish Berea. So Moses swore that day, saying, surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children's forever because you have wholly followed the Lord, my God. Again, We do not see Caleb coming to Joshua. With arrogance But with confidence, trusting that God is going to Stand up for what he said. Believing that God also would help them and drive out the inhabitants of the land. Now, this belief was not based on his own strength. But it was a total confidence in God. You know, at this point. Haleb is 85 years old, turned to read verse 10 and 11. And now behold, the Lord has kept me alive. This is Caleb speaking. And he said, these 45 years, ever since the Lord has spoken these words to Moses, well, well, Israel wandered in the wilderness and now I am this day, 85 years old. And yet I am a strong. This day, as, as on that, on that day that Moses sent me. Just as my strength was then, so now my strength is for war. Both for going out and for coming in. I do not think he was boasting. Uh, I do not know if he had the same strength as as an 85 year old as a, as a 40-year-old man, but I'm sure, I know how it is as you get older your mind doesn't change, your body changes, but your mind doesn't change. But he acknowledged he knew what God had promised him. But he also knew that it was not because of his strength. It was because he knew that it was his God that would preserve him. And in verse 12, now therefore, give me the mountain, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day, for you heard in that day how the Anakin were there and the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord. And it may be that the Lord will be with me. And I shall be able to dry them out. As the Lord said, I find this last sentence. Interesting. Again, there is no arrogance here. He says here If the Lord granted. If the Lord will help me. He's not saying I'm going to take it because I'm, I deserve it. And again, I think this last sentence brings out again, the character of Caleb. And at no point, I do not believe in his whole life. But as far as we know that there was, they took God for granted. We do not see any vanity here in his life. And remember, nothing had changed in the land. The 45 cities were still there. They were still like grasshoppers to the giants that occupied the land. Just as Caleb qui to the people back in chapter 13 verse 30. Where he said, let's go up and possess it. His attitude, his mindset had not changed. Well, He is bold in his request for the mountains, this mountainous area, and probably this was the most difficult area to take. He was not relying on his own strength or his own abilities, but his belief that God would drive them out for them. You see, Caleb served the Lord. With all his heart The story of Caleb teaches us so many valuable lessons. He shows us that we must have courage. In moments of pressure. And when others around us doubt God. We can still trust him. That he is going to preserve us, and that we will persevere while waiting to for the fulfillment of God's promise for us. His life is also an example that there is That age is not a barrier. Of accomplishing great things. Because his trust was totally in God. And you can too. It's also a reminder though, as well, in those words. That Caleb gave God the credit that he was still there. That he was acknowledging his dependence on God for every breath that he took. Now, that's how we keep our hearts right with God. It should be part of our daily prayer to thank God for the breath we have that day. As we get older, I think we pray that maybe a little bit more. But we always need to give God the credit. For our existence And that we have been called and his faithfulness and grace that he has given us. These are lessons That we can take in, you see. That's why they are here, as I said at the beginning. He put these verses in here for us to grow from. The poor And it's a reminder It does not matter how great the problems that you have in front of you, despite the hardships you may be going through, know that your God is bigger than the giants. That you're facing. And that there is no mountain. That he can't Overcome for you. If you will rely on him. If you will keep your loyalty to him. If you will be patient And wait for him. Know that we can rely on God's power. We are able to do things that we can hardly imagine. That we can only do them through him. Are you wholeheartedly following God? Remember again, God gave us men like Caleb to remind us and show us how faithful God is. A God that honors the faithfulness of his people.
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